Intervention studies to improve initial teacher education in geography: a scoping review

Teaching is a complex task. Consequently, the education of pre-service teachers (PSTs) is a complex process. Evidence-based teacher education uses research to identify effective teacher education practices by conducting intervention studies. For the effective education of pre-service geography teachers, an overview of existing intervention studies can inform educators of current research and outline possible directions for future research and teaching. This scoping review seeks to characterize the research field of (quantitative) intervention studies in initial teacher education for geography. Eligible studies are coded according to publication context, methodology, features of the intervention, and effectiveness. Only ten quasi-experimental studies were identified for review. The studies take different methodological approaches. While the features of the interventions are heterogeneous, the interventions most often supported content knowledge of PSTs. It is promising to see that most of the interventions showed effective results. Existing studies should be replicated in further research and those interventions that proved effective should be considered for use in initial teacher education (ITE). The results also show that more quasi-experimental studies in ITE for geography should be conducted.